D&D 5E (2024) WotC Should Make 5.5E Specific Setting

[Reynard]

I don't see how that does or does not follow from the mechanics. 2014 and 2024 rules are going to be neutral about thst sort of Setting detail.

What mechanics of 2E inspired any element of the Setting...? What I see in my second hand copy of Space Adventures is a bunch of bespoke mechanics meant to capture the fluff vibe.

It seems like you simply disagree with the premise. Which is fine, but im not sure how productive a conversation we can have in that case. I can't convince you that mechanics are important to setting design, and you can't convince me they aren't.

 

[Charlaquin]

Princes of the Apocalypse is actually pretty good.

I plan to include it in my Phandbox campaign (at this point more of a Sword Coast Sandbox, really), which I’ll finally be running soon! I’m going to have two different groups playing in the same sandbox on different days of the week (inspired partly by Critical Role’s multi-table approach to campaign 4), doing session 0 for the first group tomorrow evening and the second group Wednesday evening. If either of those groups ends up making their way to Red Larch and doesn’t get sidetracked by the attack on Nightstone on the way there from Phandalin, maybe I’ll end up using a lot of that material.

 

[Parmandur]

It seems like you simply disagree with the premise. Which is fine, but im not sure how productive a conversation we can have in that case. I can't convince you that mechanics are important to setting design, and you can't convince me they aren't.

Yeah, I seriously don't know what any Setting that is "Everything in 5E" would offer that is different from just running Hreyhawk out of the DMG.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, I seriously don't know what any Setting that is "Everything in 5E" would offer that is different from just running Hreyhawk out of the DMG.

Well, there are two "Greyhawks in the DMG." One is the one that is written, that does not talk about any of the legacy elements. That one can certainly be run out of the books, but even so nothing about it says 5E. It just doesn't actively contradict the rules.

The other one is the lgacy Greyhawk that happens to be introduced in the 5.5 DMG, and that one has a ton of issues with 5.5 being fundamental to its design. because Greyhawk is an old school D&D setting that doesn't actually make much sense with modern D&D.

And again that is my point: if you build a setting with 5.5 in mind, then you don't have that friction at all.

 

[Parmandur]

Well, there are two "Greyhawks in the DMG." One is the one that is written, that does not talk about any of the legacy elements. That one can certainly be run out of the books, but even so nothing about it says 5E. It just doesn't actively contradict the rules.

The other one is the lgacy Greyhawk that happens to be introduced in the 5.5 DMG, and that one has a ton of issues with 5.5 being fundamental to its design. because Greyhawk is an old school D&D setting that doesn't actually make much sense with modern D&D.

And again that is my point: if you build a setting with 5.5 in mind, then you don't have that friction at all.

Where is the friction in the DMG version...? There is explicitly.places made for all of the elements in the core books. Being an old school Setting is not a problem, because D&D is a game based on old school literary tropes. 5E was designed specifically to run AD&D material.

 

[Reynard]

Where is the friction in the DMG version...? There is explicitly.places made for all of the elements in the core books. Being an old school Setting is not a problem, because D&D is a game based on old school literary tropes. 5E was designed specifically to run AD&D material.

Where do all the new 5.5 races come from? How do the new classes interact with the AD&D of it all? Dwarf wizards, what?!?

 

[OB1]

That is interesting. I do not own either of those books. Can you tell me a little bit about them? (I am familiar with the setting via Vox Machina and that is about the extent of it, btw.)

Take the best part of the Realms, mix it with some 4e lore, and update it all to 2015. The Explorers Guide to Wildmount covers 4 unique kingdoms across a continent, has a great meta story that you can either engage with or ignore completely, has reasons for adventurers to exist and each location described give a couple hooks that a dM can run with. I ran a three year 20 level sandbox from the book.

And just like Forgotten realms began as a home tee world and grew, Exandria has done the same 30 years later.

Edited to add: as for why 5e mechanics are essential to the setting, I’d say that 5e bounded accuracy has a huge impact on the building of the civilizations and the power structures in them that keeps a few high powered wizards (like the Cerberus assembly) or adventurers (like the mighty nein) from taking over the world. The setting also makes great use of the 5e subclass system to create flavorful subclasses that directly tie into the lore of the world.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If there is some good reason for a new setting is to be unlocked in DMGuild.

My suggestion is an update of Councyl of Wyrms where Io's Blood Island is a cluster of demiplanes within the elemental limbo.

Witchlight is practically other mini-setting, or potential setting.

If WotC wanted a second Gothic Horror setting this would be probably Innistrad. Why? Because it would allow more space for different supernatural factions like vampire clans, werebeast tribes, spellcasters orders, fey noble houses, ghost guilds..

For now WotC would rather to sell 3PP settings in D&DB.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So just by way of example, one mechanical thing that is new in 5.5 that I think would impact the way we write D&D settings differently than how we have done it so far, is the change in how species and background interact mechanically. previously, we did a lot of pastiche Tolkiening -- this race (or subrace) is like this and lives here and so on. 5.5 throws that out in a big way. Those themed locations (your Rivendels and whatever) would no longer be species based, but culturally based. that is a big deal in a setting design.

What has been realised is you don’t need any mechanics to do that stuff. You can just write it and roleplay it. So 5e has dialled back on the mechanics. Leaving nothing that can “define” a setting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Where do all the new 5.5 races come from? How do the new classes interact with the AD&D of it all? Dwarf wizards, what?!?

Wherever the setting says they come from. The rules deliberately avoid ruling on that stuff.